U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,837 discloses a fiber optic connector for terminating fiber optic transmission members. This connector is made of a plastic material having resilient characteristics so that when a ferrule member of the terminated connected is mateably secured in a profiled bore of a housing member, the profiled bore causes the ferrule member to snugly engage the fiber optic transmission member and to position the axis of the fiber optic transmission member coincident with the axis of the bore of the housing member and minimizes tolerances in the terminations and connections between fiber optic transmission members.
A similar fiber optic connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,996 for use in conjunction with light-transmitting or light-sensing members.
Whereas these connectors are effective for terminating and interconnecting fiber optic transmission members, misalignment, the gap between mated fiber optic connectors, and other tolerance factors constitute problems that detract from the effectiveness of the fiber optic connections, especially with respect to connections that demand very high performance requirements. The use of lenses as a part of the fiber optic connectors for terminating fiber optic transmission members minimizes these problems and substantially increases the performance capability of such connectors.